Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century

WHEN Parliament met on 21st January, the usual amendment on
the Address was postponed " from the consideration solely of the
indisposition of a right honourable gentleman at the head of His
Majesty's Councils." On the 23rd, Pitt died.1

A Coalition
government.

Lord Grenville, 2 "the most finished political economist of his
time" according to Harriet Martineau, was asked to form a
Coalition Government. Under pressure of circumstances, the
King at last consented to Grenville's condition, and Fox
became Foreign Secretary. Addington, now Lord Sidmouth,
was Lord Privy Seal; Grey, now Lord Howick, First Lord of
the Admiralty;3 and Windham, Secretary for War.

His last speech, on 9th November of the previous year, contained a
memorable phrase. To the Lord Mayor's toast of "The Saviour of Europe," Pitt replied: " Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has
saved herself by her exertions, and will, I trust, save Europe by her example."
The proposal to honour the "excellent statesman" by burial in Westminster Abbey, one regrets to note, was passed only by 258 to 89. The main
objection -- voiced by Windham among others -- was that something more
than personal character was wanting to make a great statesman, namely,
success. Wilberforce replied, with some indignation, that the idea that
success was a proper criterion by which to appreciate the merits of a great
man was inconsistent with wisdom and justice. If the character of the dead
statesman were to be. tried by great public virtues and splendid talents, by a
love of country as sincere and ardent as ever existed in any human bosom,
where were we to look among the great men of ancient or modern times for
anyone who had stronger claims to the gratitude and respect of their country?

Grenville was born 1759; member for Buckingham, 1782; Speaker of
the House of Commons, 1789; then, successively, Home Secretary, President
of the Board of Control, and Foreign Secretary; resigned with Pitt in 1801,
but refused to go back with him when Fox was not included in the Ministry;
little adapted for a party leader, with the cold manners and retired character
and habits of his family, he seems to have strongly impressed those who met
him in private life.

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